History

The implementing Agency for accreditation is sheltered under the Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education (CPSC). The staff College is envisioned to be a center of excellence for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Asia and the Pacific region.

In both the Constitution of 1974, which located CPSC in Singapore, and the updated Constitution of 1987, which transferred it to the Philippines, the improvement of the quality of technician education and training was specifically identified as the primary purpose of the staff College.

In 2003, a program was adopted to have direct and profound effect on the quality of technical education when the CPSC Governing Board approved the CPSC Corporate Plan (2003-2008), including in particular, Goal 1 (Strategy 1.2), "Facilitate capacity-building to develop Accreditation and Certification system for the Asia Pacific Region in TET".

Armed with this mandate, Dr. Man-Gon Park, the Director General of CPSC convened an International Conference on Accreditation and Certification in December 2004 at Seoul, Korea to explore the possibility of setting up a regional body. With participants representing seventeen (17) member governments from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Sri Lanka, signing the CPSC Seoul Declaration 2004, the Asia Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC) was formed.

The International Conference was followed by a regional workshop on "Regional Accreditation Modeling and Accrediting the Accreditors" in August 2005 at CPSC, Manila, Philippines. The workshop was the first major convention to undertake the operational work of APACC, where the participants fortified the APACC accreditation criteria and instruments. It reinforced the Seoul Declaration 2004, advancing the commitment of member government representatives through a Manila Resolution of Commitment 2005.

TVET institutions have shown improvement along major criteria and this affirms the positive impact of accreditation for quality improvement in TVET institutions’ services. These results have encouraged our stance and belief in the use of accreditation as an effective mechanism for quality improvement in TVET. In the Philippines, recognition of APACC is further strengthened by requiring TVET schools to be accredited by APACC if they want to offer Senior High School. Please refer to the Memorandum issued by the Department of Education – Philippines, for further details.